The Ultimate Showdown @ Your Library Round One, Part I and II RESULTS

Our Stupendous Saturday attendees have spoken and we have some surprising results so far in Round One, Part I and II!!!

Part I

Jack Sparrow was victorious over The Cat in the Hat. Welcome to the Caribbean, Cat.
Spiderman triumphed over Harriet the Spy because of his huge heart.
In a shocking upset, Dorothy Gale of Kansas knocked out Captain Kirk. The kids didn't even have to think about it!
Amelia Bedelia won out over Octavian Nothing due to her sweet nature.
Phineas & Ferb bested Coraline because of their smarts and inventive ideas.
Nancy Drew took out Kermit the Frog.
Iron Man shut out Wolverine. They reasoned his brain power was better than Wolverine's strength.
Snape overtook Desperaux after a heated discussion by our group. It seems Snape's intellect was judged higher over Desperaux's heart.

Part II

Edward Cullen was chosen over Ms. Frizzle, but there wasn't much discussion. The girls sighed and that was that.
Mickey Mouse moved on instead of Stanley Yelnats.
Aslan easily coasted past Cinderella because he came back from the dead.
Gemma Doyle's witchy powers bested Weetzie Bat, but I think we might have convinced some readers to give both book series a chance.
Bill Nye scienced his way past Eragon because Bill Nye knows all about computers and experiments.
Alaska Young topped Dora the Explorer.
Optimus Prime was too much for Prince Caspian.
Hermione Granger moved on to the next round, taking out Bone.

Next Thursday, we'll continue with Part III of Round One. Stay tuned to see who will become the Ultimate Champion!!!

The Ultimate Showdown @ Your Library Round One!

Okay, so in the excitement of our first day, we forgot to have Round One of The Ultimate Showdown. Shame on us for having so much fun!

So today we're having double the battles in order to catch up.

In no particular order, here are today's matchups:

Cat in the Hat vs Jack Sparrow
Harriet the Spy vs Spiderman
Dorothy Gale vs Captain Kirk
Octavian Nothing vs Amelia Bedelia
Phineas & Ferb vs Coraline
Kermit the Frog vs Nancy Drew
Iron Man vs Wolverine
Desperaux vs Snape
Edward Cullen vs Ms. Frizzle
Mickey Mouse vs Stanley Yelnats
Aslan vs Cinderella
Weetzie Bat vs Gemma Doyle
Bill Nye vs Eragon
Dora the Explorer vs Alaska Young
Optimus Prime vs Prince Caspian
Bone vs Hermione

Remember, we're judging on Hearts, Smarts, Originality, Game Changer, and Coolness Bonus.

Stay tuned to see who moves on to the next round! Let the battle begin!

The Ultimate Showdown @ Your Library!

During March Madness, a lot of libraries and YA book blogs were running bracket-style tournaments to battle great YA books. I wanted to do something like this at our library, but I always worried about long request lists making it impossible for our teens to read every book.

I have already posted the video awesomeness that is The Ultimate Showdown, but watching it again gave me an idea. This summer, the kids who attend our summer program will participate in an event featuring battles between characters from pop culture- books, TV, comics, and movies!

Our very own Ultimate Showdown!

We dreamed up a list of 64 characters like Wolverine, SpongeBob SquarePants, Harry Potter, Alaska Young, and Harriet the Spy. Haven’t you ever wondered who would win a battle between Curious George and The Jonas Brothers? I know I have.

We also included some lesser-known, but incredibly amazing book characters. We can’t miss the opportunity to talk up a good book!

So I know you’re wondering how these characters will be judged.

The 64 characters are judged not on their fighting skills. This is not that sort of battle. Instead, the characters are judged in five categories:

Hearts (what’s inside, do they use their heart?) 1-3 points
Smarts (do they use their brain?) 1-3 points
Originality (are they totally unique? Is there no one else like them?) 1-3 points
Game Changer (everyone knows them) 1 point
Coolness Bonus (is this character just really cool?) 1 point

The kids who participate will debate and discuss each battle, come to a group decision, and the winner of each pair will move on to other battles until we have an Ultimate Champion at the end of the summer.

We will have rounds of battle on Thursdays and Saturdays through the summer program.

June 25, June 27, July 2, July 7 - 64 characters, 8 battles each day
July 11 and July 16 - 32 characters, 8 battles each day
July 18 - 16 characters, 8 battles (Sweet Sixteen)
July 23 - 8 characters, 4 battles (Elite Eight)
July 25 - 4 characters, 2 battles (Final Four)
July 30 - 2 characters, 1 battle (Ultimate Champion!)

Visit this blog often for updates!

Let the battle begin!


Credit is due to the original creator of The Ultimate Showdown song and video, Lemon Demon.